Bristol 2014: The City and Conflict from the First World War to the Present Day

Bristol 2014 is an extensive programme of activity marking the centenary of the start of the First World War and looking at other conflicts that have had an impact on the city over the last century.

The programme includes: major exhibitions at MShed, Royal West of England Academy and other sites; an online map and free smartphone app; a mass-reading of a free, specially produced book on Bristol and First World War; a wide range of lectures, talks, seminars, debates and guided walks; digital film-making workshops and other arts’ projects; new local history publications; concerts, film screenings and other performances at venues across the city; material to help people research their family connections to those who fought in the First World War.

The programme aims to be diverse, engaging, inspiring, informative. Some elements will be entertaining; some will be poignant; some provocative.

Themes to be explored include: the changes in ideas, opinions and technology that results from war; combatants, refugees, asylum seekers and others who have come to Bristol because of war; the lives of military service personnel, non-combatants and conscientious objectors; the Bristol home front in the First World War; the role of the suffragettes; family stories and urban myths about Bristol and war over the last 100 years; the impact of war and conflict on children; the changing perceptions of the British Empire in the last century; artists’ responses to war including in visual art, literature, film and drama; military hospitals and medical advances; the arms industry; the role of volunteer groups in war time; memorialising the dead; post-war development schemes in Bristol.

You can read a summary of the plans of the programme by clicking on the link HERE.

Festival of Ideas events linked to the programme include:

Ian Morris: War: What is it Good For? – Fri 11 April 2014, 18.00-19.00

Young People’s Festival of Ideas: The Army Wants You, But Do You Want it? – Wed 7 May 2014, 19.00-20.30

The full Bristol 2014 website will be launched in July 2014 at www.bristol2014.com, with a temporary version available from April. It will include What’s On information for all the events, background articles, an historic timeline, digital films, news stories, arts projects, an online map and downloadable map app and much more. In the meantime you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter @Bristol2014.

Bristol 2014 is a partner in the First World War Centenary

It is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

It is coordinated by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership (Arts Council England, Bristol City Council, Business West).